PS109 @ MEDIANOCHE!
SATURDAY MAY 20TH 2PM – 9PM
161 EAST 106th STREET
(btw Lexington & 3rd ave.)
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS OPENING EVENT
OF THE PS109 ARTIST NEEDS ASSESSMENT
PS109 (99th st btw 2nd / 3rd ave)
Artists, we need your help!
More specifically, we need your thoughts and opinions for a survey of the space needs of artists of all disciplines.
Artspace Projects (www.artspaceusa.org), a national nonprofit organization, is working with El Barrio’s Operation Fightback in East Harlem to transform former Public School 109 (PS109) into a live+work arts / community facility. This survey will help us do so. Please join us on May 20th to launch the survey! Starting at 3pm, and each hour thereafter, we will provide a presentation about the project and the survey.
From Saturday May 20 – Saturday July 15, artists of all disciplines are invited to complete a confidential online version of the survey at:
This project will serve the El Barrio community through sustainable cultural infrastructure that facilitates East Harlem not only as a creative community, but also as a Latino cultural capital. As you probably know, there is a lot of good work happening in the area to promote a cultural corridor, and projects like this will only serve to strengthen El Barrio’s efforts to provide long-term capacity to the unique voice that has come out of the community for decades.Specifically, this project will serve the El Barrio community by providing low income live+work units that are at or below 60% area median income. 100% of the live+work units in the facility will be low income units. The facility will also provide some 6-12,000 square feet of arts, culture and community space.Artist participation in this survey is critical to making this project a reality. Your input will not only help us to understand if there is a need for low income live+work units, it will also help us understand the design and amenities needs within the project.
If you have questions about the survey, contact Artspace Projects at 612.333.9012, MediaNoche at 212.828.0402, or El Barrio’s Operation Fightback at 212.410.7900.
I had heard of this project but I didn’t where to get more information. I was given a card at the Museum activity on Tuesday. We, at home, are artistic people but we are so limited by our space that we need help therefore are willing to help. MM
Poor, struggling Hispanic immigrants are being victimized by their own people. Sham groups such as the Movement For Justice In El Barrio and its notorious leader, Juan Haro, aided and abetted by a citywide umbrella group of like movements called Housing Here And Now, are systematically sucking the life out of their countrymen under the guise of organizing them against their landlords. One has only to go to the Housing Here And Now website called nyc worst landlords to see that it is nothing more than a total rant against all landlords and they will support any group that claims to be fighting against their landlord. The manner in which these people are victimized is shameless. They are packed 15 – 20 people at a time into tiny apartments meant for a few people, children and all. What’s worse is that, even though it is illegal and dangerous, the city of New York tacitly sanctions the overcrowding. Landlords are complaining to HPD, DOB and the FDNY with no response. Inspectors from all of the city agencies refuse to issue violations for overcrowding and judges refuse to give evictions without the violations. It’s a vicious circle that leaves the poor tenants sitting in the middle, with no place to go. Instead of ranting against landlords, the legitimate groups should condemn the people who rent the apartments and then sublet them illegally to a dozen or more others. All they are trying to do is deflect the blame from themselves and direct it at the landlords, who make a convenient target. What is even worse, the people doing this, like Juan Haro, are being legitimized by their misguided NYC councilwoman, Melissa Mark Viverito, who is under pressure from people like Sister Kathy Maire, from St Cecelia’s RC Church, to back their schemes. Instead of helping the poor immigrants find decent housing of their own, they are perpetuating the overcrowding by rallying them against their landlords. Who in their right mind would condone herding people, like animals, into tiny packed apartments, except someone who had something to gain by it; something like votes or donations or dozens of rents from each apartment.